Had you told me before this offseason began the Marlins would give a closer three years and $27 million guaranteed, I would have laughed. You could have convinced me that much maligned home run sculpture at the new ballpark was really an alchemy machine triggered with every Mike Stanton long ball, and I still would not have believed the three-year deal — with a vesting option! — they gave Bell would be possible.

Even when the Marlins have had money to spend, they haven’t allocated it to their ninth-inning guy. From 2004-2011, ALL the Marlins primary closers earned a combined $14.4745 million in base pay. Let’s go year-by-year: Armando Benitez (2004, $3.5 million); Todd Jones (2005, $1.1 million); Joe Borowski (2006, $327,000); Kevin Gregg (2007-’08, $3.075); Matt Lindstrom (2009, $410,000); Leo Nunez (2009-’11, $6.0625 million). Braden Looper, who began the 2003 World Series championship season as the closer before the Marlins acquired Ugueth Urbina, made $1.6 million that year.

Heath Bell certainly earned this deal. He is one of three closers ever to log three consecutive seasons with at least 40 saves, 60 innings, and a sub-2.75 ERA (2009-’11). The others are Eric Gagne (2002-’04) and Mariano Rivera (2003-’05). His intangibles also are off the chart. Bell instantly becomes a team leader and no doubt will embrace the role.

Yet many will question whether the Marlins’ money would not have been better spent elsewhere. From Twitter — @Cwyers: And here I thought nothing could make the Papelbon deal look better; @MRJManic: Market value for relievers is bad value; @conjpat: marlins need to realize this mistake before it is too late, claim medical issue, save the money! Bell overrated!; @LeBatardShow: The Marlins, unpopular but prudent, are finally doing and attempting to do the things fans love. And it isn’t baseball smart.

To be fair, plenty of folks on Twitter love the Bell signing.

Bell turned 34 on Sept. 29 and as David Villavicencio pointed out in his blog, Bell’s drop in strikeouts from 2010 (11.1 per nine innings) to 2011 (7.3 per nine innings) is somewhat alarming. Villavicencio also referenced Bell’s home and road splits. Petco Park may be the best pitcher’s park in the game, but during Bell’s tenure there his home/road splits weren’t all that different. From 2007-’11, opposing hitters logged a .567 OPS (709 at-bats) off Bell at Petco Park and a .581 OPS (640 at-bats) off him everywhere else.

From 2009-’11 (.590/.567) and 2010-’11 (.603/.567), Bell had higher OPS against at Petco Park than on the road.

Does this signing alone make the Marlins significantly better? No. Couple it with Jose Reyes, C.J. Wilson or Mark Buehrle, and Yoenis Cepedes, and it might prove to be key. Good read from Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports on how this deal could propel the Marlins to a big offseason.

I agree, this signing will be good IF they sign other players as well. I’m looking for at least Buehrle and Wilson. The Marlins haven’t had a good lefty starter in ages, and two of them are tied to the team now. If the Fish can get both of them, combined with JJ, Nolasco and Sanchez, the Fish will have a formidable starting five, and hopefully options like Sanabia in the minors if JJ gets injured again. After those two get signed, I’d like to see either a Cespedes or a Reyes. I would choose Cespedes over Reyes due to the youth and better upside, and Reyes has been injury-prone.

You would rather gamble on a guy that hasn’t seen a major league pitch instead of the reigning NL batting champ? Reyes is what, two years older than Cespedes? I don’t mind them going after Cespedes, but if it came down to one or the other, don’t think it’s debatable.

I am not in favor of spending this kind of money on relievers. However, I believe the Marlins front office factored in Bell’s leadership aspects. He will immediately be our primary clubhouse leader and I think that’s worth overpaying to get this intangible value.

It does not matter what the Marlins do. There will always be people that will disagree and want to rain on their parade. I trust they know what their needs are and have allocated funds to fill them. Be patient and see how this all unfolds. I for one am happy to see them constantly in the news for all the right reasons. And the new uni’s are great. Got my two boys the orange jersey and it looks tight!!

I have been searching for a way to fix a broken zipper (one of the teeth is missing), and came accross a good article that isthat’s basically a step by step tutorial showing you in detail how to do the repairs. I was able to repair mine in around 15 minutes. I just linked to the article in my post here. Has anyone else ever have to fix a zipper? Personally, I thought it was pretty straight forward and definitely fixing.

Better get your ducks in a row because inside information indicates the hammer is going to fall on the whole Fish organization as well as Dade County and Miami governments in regards to that sweet stadium deal at the expense of taxpayer’s.

L O L !

Hopefully the crooks at the Fish organization have tight rear ends. Not !

What you people forget everytime Nunez would come in and close a game you just had that bad feeling! We have plenty of young budding superstars. Stanton is going to be a power beast. Need more starting pitching and Reyes would just top it off.